A mysterious creature spotted in the middle of the night near a rural Texas community has wildlife officials baffled.
The chilling black-and-white footage was captured by a camera outside Dublin, northeast of Dallas, and showed what appeared to be a small animal walking on four legs of varying sizes and with humps on its back.
Michael “Dumas” Demel, 49, of nearby Schulenburg, showed photos of the creature to friends, family and neighbors, who suggested it was a skinwalker, alien or even a chupacabra – an infamous blood-sucking cryptid from American folklore.
The Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife had no idea, telling Demel that “due to the quality of the image, it is not possible to positively identify the animal,” adding that it was “too small to be a white-tailed deer fawn.”
The camera captured what appeared to be a small creature walking on all fours. But upon closer inspection, the legs are different sizes and there are bumps on its back. Some have suggested it was a ‘skinwalker’
Others claim the creature was a chupacabra, a legendary creature said to feast on livestock.
“I have three different cameras on three different hunting grounds – they catch coyotes, deer, bobcats, rabbits, raccoons and foxes,” Demel said Pen News.
‘I look at about 100 photos from the three cameras every day, but this was the only photo where the message appeared.
‘My first reaction was that something was wrong, so I stopped to zoom in on the photo. ‘My first thought was that it was a monkey.’
The creepy creature appeared to have a long snout, a small top of its head and humps on its back, which is why some of its friends claimed it was a skin walker.
Skinwalkers are part of a Navajo legend that says they were once healers and medicine men, but were corrupted by their own powers and turned evil, becoming supernatural beings.
The Navajo word for skin walker is yee naaldlooshii, which means “by means of which it goes on all fours.”
The story, told to Navajo children, says that skinwalkers can transform into an animal, possess another creature, or disguise themselves.
In human form, skinwalkers are said to have glowing red eyes and animalistic features barely hidden behind a human face.
“I showed it to neighbors, family, friends. I got everything from a skin walker, a monkey, a chupacabra, an alien,” Demel said.
“You hear stories about chupacabra in South Texas.”
A chupacabra, which is the Spanish word for “goat sucker,” is also a legendary creature and has been known to kill livestock.
Michael Demel captured the chilling black and white footage using one of his trail cams, which was located outside Dublin
The first sightings occurred in the late 1980s, when Puerto Rican farmers claimed that a dog-sized animal with lizard-like skin and a strong spine was attacking their livestock.
The first report of a chupacabra in Texas came in 2017 from Phylis Canion, a rancher from Cuero, who described the animal as having large canine teeth, large ears, and bony limbs.
She also said that the hind legs were longer than the front legs, creating an unnatural arch.
And that description matched what Demel captured with his camera, which he’s had for about 10 years and has never captured anything this bizarre.
“It’s just unusual,” he said. “I’ve seen hundreds of thousands of photos of game over the years and I’ve hunted in the woods my whole life — and this was a first.”
The creature’s true identity remains a mystery.